Toward an Environmental History of the Irish Revolution

Justin Dolan Stover’s current work considers the environmental impact of the Irish Revolution, which provides contrasting guerrilla and counter-insurgency examples to larger-scale war damage, displacement, and environmental nationalism in modern Europe.

Justin Dolan Stover is Assistant Professor of transnational European history at Idaho State University. He holds an M.A. in Twentieth Century Irish History from University College Dublin, and a Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin. He has held various research fellowships, including the William B. Neenan, S.J. Fellowship at Boston College Ireland, which he served in 2015. His research has explored the social impacts of war and violence in Europe, touching on the processes of identity formation and loyalty, trauma and memory during the First World War and Irish Revolution.

Dr. Stover’s current work considers the environmental impact of the Irish Revolution, which provides contrasting guerrilla and counter-insurgency examples to larger-scale war damage, displacement, and environmental nationalism in modern Europe.

Dr Justin Dolan Stover at QUB (Photo: Real Smart Media).

Stover visited Queen’s University Belfast in October 2017 to give a paper at an event jointly hosted by the Institute for Irish Studies and ‘Commemorating Partition and Civil Wars in Ireland, 2020-23‘; a project run by Dr Marie Coleman and Dr Dominic Bryan. The project, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, examines approaches to the 2020-2023 period of the ‘decade of centenaries’, on both sides of the Irish border.

The paper – ‘Toward an Environmental History of the Irish Revolution’ – was recorded by Real Smart Media and is now available as a podcast on History Hub.

Since ‘Commemorating Partition and Civil Wars in Ireland, 2020-2023′ began its work in 2017, a number of events have taken place in QUB. These events have examined the complex challenges of upcoming centenaries, in the context of commemoration, specially in Northern Ireland.

Engaging the public with contested history is one of History Hub’s core objectives and we have partnered with the project to produce freely accessible podcasts from project events, including: Civil Wars and their Legacy; and Commemoration and Conflict in Ireland, 1920-1922. These podcasts, produced by Real Smart Media, are now available on History Hub, iTunes and Soundcloud.